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The head of global equity proprietary trading at JP Morgan is preparing to launch a hedge fund, in what is likely to be one of the most hotly-anticipated start-ups of the year.

Deepak Gulati, who joined JP Morgan almost a decade ago from Dresdner Kleinwort, has set up Zug-based Argentière Capital, named after one of the main ski resorts in Chamonix. The launch was first reported by HFMWeek in October.

He and a team of about 20 JP Morgan traders are planning to launch an equity multi-strategy hedge fund in the second or third quarter, according to two people familiar with the situation. The move has the full support of JP Morgan, which is letting Gulati market the new fund with the track record he built up at the bank, one of the people said. However, JP Morgan has no immediate plans to invest.

During the six years between 2007 and 2012, Gulati’s team delivered annualised returns of over 15%, according to one of the people. The team ran four sub-strategies – event-driven, long/short equity, credit and capital structure arbitrage, and volatility arbitrage – and all of the strategies made money, the person added.

Gulati has hired Barry Thomas, who previously worked as a director at FRM Capital Advisors, the seeding division of funds of funds firm FRM, which is owned by Man Group. Thomas will be in charge of marketing and investor relations, the people said.

Gulati and Thomas were not immediately available for comment.

Argentière will be the third high-profile hedge fund launch to come out of JP Morgan’s proprietary trading division in recent years, and Gulati’s team is the bank’s last remaining proprietary trading desk.

In 2011, JP Morgan began moving its proprietary trading unit out of its investment bank and into its asset management division to comply with the Volcker Rule. The law, which makes up part of the US Dodd-Frank Act, is designed to curb excessive risk taking at banks and limit them from trading for their own accounts.

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In October of that year, Fahad Roumani, a managing director in credit proprietary trading, led a team that launched the JPS Credit Opportunities Fund within the asset management division, seeded with $350m from JP Morgan’s investment banking arm.

Mike Stewart, co-head of the bank’s global emerging markets business was also expected to set up a hedge fund within the asset management division but he decided to leave and launch Whard Stewart Asset Management, which started trading last year.

--Write to harriet.agnew@dowjones.com

• Correction: This story was amended on February 15 to state that the launch of Argentière Capital was first reported by HFMWeek in October. The story has been updated to reflect that the hedge fund will be based in Zug, not Zurich as we initially reported.